Happy World Cat Day - 8/8/13

Today is World Cat Day (thanks to Ann of Zoolatry for this fun graphic) and we are celebrating cats in all colors.  We have white cats, black cats, a torbie cat and tabby cats and even a grey and white tuxie cat. We are all very different in looks and in personalities.

Since many of our cats do not get much blog time Mom is going to feature a few of the quieter ones here with a little more about them.  Top row - left to right is Sam napping with Snowball.

Sam

 Sam is the only one with an ear tip so Mom could tell him apart from the others.  When we were all younger it was very hard to tell one white cat from another but now we have such distinctive personalities and  looks she does fine.  Sam is very quiet and hisses at the peeps when they first approach him but it is all show. He really wants loving but is too shy!

Norm

Back to the pic - next is Tabitha, Only, and Rosa and Mamacita in one pic.  Second row down is Minnie, Yoko, Darby and Norm.  Now Norm is Sam's littermate and is also very quiet.  He prefers to hide and run away when the peeps come by.  He LOVES Snowball and follows him everywhere but Snowball is not so keen on all the attention he gets from Norm!

Georgie

Next row is Al, Woody, Georgie and Lily.  Georgie is a girl (Georgie Girl the movie)  and is Norm and Sam's littermate.  She is very pretty, dainty and a girly cat.  She is also very quiet and kind of gets lost with all the boy cats in this group.  Lily is the Mom to all the white cats except Al.  Sometimes she is a fussy Mom and likes her alone time without the kids pestering her.  We kinda feel bad as in a feral colony, she would have left the kittens when they were old enough to fend for themselves and got on with her own life.  Now she is stuck with them all.  We home to bring her in the house when some of the numbers go down to give her some peace.

Lily

Last row is Smidge, Two Spot, Snowball and Sweetpea in the small pics and Ivy last.  Smidge is Only and Two Spot's littermate and is a quiet yet feisty girl.  She is small boned but can hold her own with her brothers.  She makes a lot of noise howling and hissing when they mess with her.  It scares them off. She can take care of herself and loves to be loved up by the peeps.

Smidge

We hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about our gang.  Happy World cat Day from all of us at Wildcat Woods!

Happy World Cat Day

Happy World Cat Day to all our kitty loving friends out in blog land.  We are celbrating today by featuring tortoiseshell cats with me Chica hosting. I had a very rough week but I am doing so much better. Thank you all for helping to pull me thru with purrs, prayers and donations.  This is Mom's favortie picture of  me taken a couple of years back.  I think it shows off my tortieness very well.

Some cool things about torties:

Poet Edgar Allen Poe wrote about cats as sinister in his poems but adored his cat Catarina who was a tortoiseshell.  She was the inspiration for his story The Black Cat.

Most people think that all torties are female but  actually one in 3,00 is a male. But male torties are not true males - tortie coloring requires two X (female) chromosomes and males have one X and one Y.  Tortie males owe their coloring to a genetic mistake such as an extra Y chromosome and are usually sterile.

Mom just found out recently that in animal shelters torties are next to the last to get adopted and black cats the very last.  Who would not want a tortie?

Those of you that have torties know they can be diva cats with attitude.  But we are also impish, playful, social and very loyal.  We have Tortitude!

Whatever kind of cat you have - please give them extra love, treats and playtime today.  We are here for such a short time on this Earth - appreciate each moment you have with us!

We will wind up today with this great poem -

THE TORTOISESHELL CAT
by Patrick Reginald Chalmers (first published in Punch magazine, 4 March 1914)

The Tortoiseshell cat
She sits on the mat
As gay as a sunflower, she;
In orange and black you see her blink,
And her waistcoat's white, and her nose is pink
And her eyes are green of the sea.
But all is vanity, all the way;
Twilight's coming and close of day,
And every cat in the twilight's gray,
Every possible cat.

*

The tortoiseshell cat
She is smooth and fat,
And we call her Josephine,
Because she weareth upon her back
This coat of colors, this raven black,
This red of the tangerine.
But all is vanity, all the way;
Twilight follows the brightest day,
And every cat in the twilight's gray,
Every possible cat.

Happy World Cat Day!

Today we are celebrating cats. I never had cats as a child, only dogs because my mother was allergic to cats. My first cat Chica, who is still with me, came into my life almost 20 years ago. She started me on my path of caring for and rescuing feral cats and I have learned so much about myself and cats since then. My love for all animals is my passion in life.

To Be of Service
Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission - to be of service to them wherever they require it.
--- Saint Francis of Assisi

I am a humble servant to these loving creatures - both past and present....


Sweet loving Gerogie - littermate of Norm, Sam and Woody.



My first and dearest - Chica - a very spoiled ladycat.



Dear Clarence only lived with us for 18 months. He had cancer and finally died Oct. 2004 of heart failure. He was such a charming yet reserved cat. He won our hearts in such a short time.



Darby was found living under our house one winter - she is my snuggle bunny cat!



Sweetpea is a tiny long haired black cat who loves to sit on your lap and give kisses (French ones)! Yoko, a brown tabby, loves to sleep in piles of laundry, or high up on the closet shelf.



Lily is the feral mom to many of my white cats - she avoided the trap each time and had two litters before we could catch her and the kittens.



Norm, Snowball and Sam - Lily's first litter still love to be with each other.



Joey and Minnie are littermates and can always be found snuggling together. We lost littermate Leroy at six months old while they were still outside - he disappeared and we never found any sign of him. Another brother Nick lost his battle with cancer in Jan 2006.



Mamcita and her daughter Rosa are very shy and don't like a lot of attention. Manny was the other kitten of her litter but we lost him in Jan 2007 of a serious bladder complication.



Going from front to back - Two Spot, Smidge on the floor, Only and Tabitha are from Lily's second litter.



Woody - brother of Norm,Sam and Georgie. He is my very shy boy.



Ivy was the head female of the feral group I inherited when my husband and I bought our farmhouse. She, along with Momcat who passed in 2003, ran the group and kept things going. She is still the boss and running things now that she is an indoor cat.



Big Guy was the head male of our feral group and ran a tight ship! He kept the peace and ran off other tomcats that tried to take over. He passed in my arms Oct. 2004 and the group pretty much broke apart. I took the remaining ones inside since another male cat was chasing the old group off.



Al who is deaf, came into my life after I had lost Clarence and Big Guy within two weeks of each other. He helped me keep going with his silly antics and personality!

Today is catnip and treat day for all these lucky cats. Please remember to help out other animals who don't have caring homes!

For more animal posts check out Camera Critters and Pet Pride.